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Moscow's Mood Uneasy as Vote on Yeltsin's Impeachment Nears

The Parliament is priming itself for a vote to impeach the President on charges that he brought Russia to ruin. The President's men talk darkly of dumping the Prime Minister, accusing him of leading the country back to its Communist past.

Welcome to Russia's latest political crisis, where rumors are rife and political intriguers have already unsheathed their knives for a showdown Saturday, when the impeachment of President Boris N. Yeltsin is due to come to a vote.

Now the fate of Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov's eight-month-old Government has also been thrown into the balance, amid loud hints from the Kremlin that it has outlived its usefulness as a guarantor of political stability.

Like other Russian crises, this one may pass. But for the moment all those involved are doing their best to keep the country's nerves on edge when Russia is deeply involved in diplomacy to end the war in Kosovo.

Mr. Yeltsin's own record of bizarre behavior has added to the uneasy mood. In recent appearances, he has seemed unsteady on his feet, even incoherent, blurting out incomplete sentences before television cameras.

For several weeks, Mr. Yeltsin and his advisers have seemed bent on cutting back Mr. Primakov's authority -- by firing one of his top ministers, by purposefully sidelining him at public events, and by privately painting him as an agent of the Communist opposition.

The support of the Communists has been the source of Mr. Primakov's power. But according to his critics, including those within the presidential administration, it is also the reason for his Government's paralysis, particularly in the economic sphere.

Rumors of Mr. Primakov's pending dismissal -- or forced resignation -- have resurfaced, stirring speculation that Mr. Yeltsin may be looking for an excuse to disband the Parliament. Even in his current weakened position, Mr. Yeltsin still has the power to make such threats come true, and that may be enough to give his opposition pause.

The last time the Russian Parliament's lower house was due to take up a five-count impeachment charge against Mr. Yeltsin, it voted to postpone the vote. Many analysts expect it to do the same this time, in part because it is unlikely that the 300 votes necessary to make the impeachement charges stick can be collected.

Of the five impeachment charges, only one -- accusing Mr. Yeltsin of waging an illegal war in Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 -- has the support of both liberals and Communists in the 450-member lower house. The other charges involve the breakup of the Soviet Union, the shelling of the Parliament in 1993, the collapse of the Russian military, and the ''genocide'' of the Russian people.

Any charges approved by the lower house would then have to clear the Russian Constitutional Court, then the Supreme Court and finally the Parliament's upper house before Mr. Yeltsin could be removed from office. The chances of clearing these hurdles before Mr. Yeltsin's second presidential term expires in the summer of 2000 are very slight.

With the impeachment debate due to begin Thursday, Mr. Primakov again came out publicly today against any attempt to dislodge Mr. Yeltsin, telling parliamentary leaders that the impeachment drive threatened the country's politicial stability. Mr. Yeltsin's aides today also denied reports that they had prepared plans for the Government's dismissal.